The present invention relates to seats for use by children in vehicles and, particularly, to seats having child-restraining harness belts and to seats configured to seat older children in a restrained fashion using adult vehicle lap and shoulder belts. More particularly, the present invention relates to a child vehicle seat with a child-restraint harness adjustment mechanism and to a child vehicle seat with a headrest adjustment mechanism.
Many child car seats are formed to include several sets of shoulder belt-receiving apertures in a back wall of the car seat so that the car seat can be adapted by a user to restrain children of different sizes. To accommodate an infant, the two shoulder belts are uncoupled from other portions of the car seat harness, passed through a lowest pair of shoulder belt-receiving apertures formed in the back wall of the car seat, and then recoupled to the car seat harness.
As the infant grows, the caregiver must repeat the belt installation procedure described above using other higher sets of belt-receiving apertures formed in a higher portion of the back wall of the car seat to enlarge the child car seat harness to accommodate the growing child. Many caregivers would welcome a car seat that is adaptable to hold infants, toddlers, and juveniles and, in particular, is adaptable to adjust the size of the child-restraint harness quickly and easily to accommodate children of various sizes in the child car seat.
In accordance with the present invention, a child-restraint seat includes a seat adapted to seat a child, a child-restraint harness, and a harness-control panel formed to include a belt-receiving opening receiving a shoulder belt portion of the child-restraint harness. The harness-control panel is mounted on the seat shell for up and down movement relative to the seat to raise and lower the shoulder belt portion of the child-restraint harness with respect to a bottom seat portion of the seat so as to harness both small-sized and large-sized children properly in a restrained position in the seat.
In preferred embodiments, the movable harness-control panel includes a back plate formed to include two horizontally extending spaced-apart slots and two support arms. A forward end of each support arm is coupled to the back plate and the rearward end of each support arm passes through one of two guide slots formed in a back support portion of the seat to guide up and down movement of the harness-control panel relative to the seat. A height-adjustment apparatus is coupled to the rearward ends of the support arms and operated to move the harness-control panel up and down relative to the seat to one of several predetermined heights above the bottom seat portion defined by position locator slots formed on a rearward side of the back support portion.
The back support portion is formed to include two slanted channels positioned to lie behind the back panel and between the guide slots. The two slanted channels are aligned in V-shaped relation to communicate with the two slots formed in the back plate during up and down movement of the back plate relative to the seat.
Movement of the harness-control panel simultaneously controls the height of two shoulder belts included in the child-restraint harness above the bottom seat portion and lateral spacing between the two shoulder belts. The two shoulder belts should be higher above the bottom seat portion and farther apart from one another to harness a larger-sized child in a seat properly. The same two shoulder belts should be closer to the bottom seat portion and closer to one another to harness a smaller-sized child properly in the same seat.
A middle portion of the first shoulder belt passes through a first slot in the back panel and a matching first slanted channel in the back support portion and connects to the height-adjustment apparatus. Likewise, a middle portion of the second shoulder belt passes through a second slot in the back panel and a matching second slanted channel in the back support portion and connects to the height-adjustment apparatus. By operating the height-adjustment apparatus it is possible at the option of a caregiver either to raise the back panel higher above the bottom seat portion, thereby raising the shoulder belts higher and spreading the shoulder belts farther apart so as to accommodate and harness a larger-sized child or to lower the back panel closer to the bottom seat portion, thereby moving the shoulder belts lower and bringing the shoulder belts closer together so as to accommodate and harness a smaller-sized child.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of preferred embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.